Pentagon okays sale of certain porn magazines at military exchanges

Pentagon okays sale of certain porn magazines at military exchanges

A Christian advocacy group is encouraging military families, and other concerned citizens, to write letters to the Defense Department expressing concern over the recent decision by the Pentagon that allows the sale of certain adult magazines at military exchanges.

The Military Honor and Decency Act was passed by Congress and prohibits sexually explicit material from being sold on Defense Department property. However, it is up to a department review board to determine what material is considered explicit, and it has ruled that magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can be sold at military exchanges.

Pat Trueman serves as Special Counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund and he says it appears that the military is far less forgiving to those who access porn on the computer, than those who buy it at a store.

"We have actually heard of some individuals being bounced out of the military for having pornography on their computer and looking at it at work," he states. "Well if that’s conduct unbecoming of an officer, which we understand they’ve said, why is it the military can sell those officers pornography in the PX."

Trueman says the Alliance Defense Fund is encouraging citizens to get involved in this fight over this pornography policy. "What we’re going to do is try to get more and more complaints into the military about this policy. Because in justifying this policy by the military what they’ve said [is] they’ve had few complaints from families about the sale of pornography in the military," he says.

Trueman says sexual harassment and other problems in the military are exacerbated by pornography. He says this new policy, of deeming magazines like Penthouse and Playboy as not sexually explicit, counters common sense.